Irene Is Now Expected To Pass Right Over Wall Street With 74-95 mph Winds

There is a silver lining though: just as it has over the past 3 years, the world's Bernanke Put "Heads I win, Tails the world blows up" hub may survive simply courtesy of being in the eye of the Hurricane. Alas, this time around, the other side will arrive much faster: after all the Fed can not print windbreaks.

Three governors declared states of emergency Thursday as Hurricane Irene threatened to wreak havoc along the United States' Eastern Seaboard.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared emergencies for their states, while North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue declared a state of emergency in counties east of Interstate 95. The emergency declarations allow states to free funds and prepare resources that may be needed.

If Irene continues along its current track, "from a flooding perspective, this could be a hundred-year event," Christie said. He encouraged voluntary evacuations to begin immediately. "Anybody who is on a barrier island should go," he said, adding that on Friday people along the beaches should start thinking about moving to higher ground.

Christie said it was too soon to know whether there will be mandatory evacuations.

In parts of North Carolina, mandatory evacuations were under way Thursday.

The military moved more than two dozen ships out to sea ahead of the storm.

As of 11 a.m. ET, the Category 3 storm was pounding the northwestern Bahamas, with its core approaching Abaco Island, the National Hurricane Center said.

"The core of the hurricane will continue to move over the northwestern Bahamas today, and pass well offshore of the east coast of central and north Florida tonight and early Friday. The hurricane is forecast to approach the coast of North Carolina on Saturday," the center's advisory said.

Maximum sustained winds were at 115 mph as the storm worked its way northwest.

At the end of the clip, some locals talk about the lower lake level, down by 22".

Per the plant owners:

"Dominion says each of the plant’s two nuclear reactors pumps one million gallons of water a minute into the North Anna Lake. Dominion says that flow was disrupted during the power outage, but posed no risk to the public."

Excuse me. If the lake is not getting the "million gallons of water a minute", the reactor is not being cooled. Which may be a risk to the public.

I was talking to my banker today, I accidentally said, "Well I understand your position on this, given everyone thinks ya'll are criminals and all, you need to be conservative (they gave me a lowball appraisal on something which may screw me)." He said, "Gosh, now why would I be offended by that?" We both laughed, we both know what is what.

For every 250 feet in the air you are, you feel the wind at an increase of one category level. So if the hurricane is a cat 1 on the ground and you are on the 24th floor, you're getting hit with a cat 2.

Meanwhile, here in Virginia Beach, we're dug in tight and our bug out bags are heavy as hell because of the gold and silver. We're sure not looking forward to humping it out if we have to leave...

May I just correct you on the 'every' part of your comment. It is true that the wind speed increases with elevation, but only up to a certain point. This is because you are getting away from the ground clutter and up into unfettered air flow.

But it doesn't increase with 'every' 250 feet. My understanding is that the increase between ground level and say 250 feet and up would be 25 to 40 MPH. More under extreme circumstances. But your example would mean that it goes from a Cat 1 to a Cat 4 at the top of the Empire State Bldg. Nope.

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know My name is the LORD when I lay My vengeance upon thee.

It's like a lot of baaaad juju just came to the usually placid east coast. And this is just the start of the hurricane season too. Plus, these rains are full of corexit and what ever weird artificial life form craig ventner and his people invented to "eat" the oil spill (still spilling again, GW is right).

What about the collateral damage, outside of the "deserving of wrath" ones?

I remember this as beign the time we'd be looking forward to fall colours in Upstate NY. (RPI!!!).

Even if this is a non-event in real terms, all this "emergency" action will make it one.

when TSHTF, people will use paper money as TP. in all seriousness folks, make sure you have what hillbillies call "metally money" Gold and silver if that is your thing, but for everyday use, US and Canadian minted common coins will be integral to a quasi barter system.

This may be exactly the event excuse Bernanke has been looking for to launch QE3. The real issue facing Manhattan is that a direct hit could floor downtown Manhattan upto Houston if this system retains a fair amount of strength. All NYC transit will without a doubt be out for a few days. This is a fairly large storm as well so being that I have an apt on the first floor I may have to make arrangements.

To change the density, wouldn't it be simple to (somehow) heat it? If only there were a huge micro-wave emitter (somewhere) that we had access to.. And some way to direct its energy to the targeted zone...

Scientists estimate that a tropical cyclone releases heat energy at the rate of 50 to 200 exajoules (1018 J) per day,[19] equivalent to about 1 PW (1015 watt). This rate of energy release is equivalent to 70 times the world energy consumption of humans and 200 times the worldwide electrical generating capacity, or to exploding a 10-megatonnuclear bomb every 20 minutes.[19][26]

Not sure how you'd power 666 zillion microwave ovens to have an effect. To one of these, an H bomb is about as effective as a gnat's fart.